Buddy Boehm wouldn’t call it a dream. Dreams are conceived, it is considered possible only when everything is according to the plan of one day.
This – becoming Syracuse’s leading scorer, its key to an astonishing NCAA tournament – was not a scenario he had ever portrayed.
“I have always wanted to play here, but I never thought I would be in this position, so that I could lead my team and be a big player,” Hall of Fame coach Jim Boehm’s son said. The lead in the 11th-round Orange’s Midwest Region first-round game against No. 6 San Diego State on Friday night. “It just shows you what hard work can do. I never thought I would get this good. “
Buddy’s dream was to play for Syracuse. He has been around the program all his life. If everything went right – absolutely everything – maybe he could one day be a contributor as an elder, he thought.
Buddy was unlikely to rank a high. He was never the best player on his high school team. He did not start at AAU until his junior year. A 6-foot-6 junior shooting guard, he was rated as a three-star recruit. Prior to his senior year, he averaged 13.5 points with the City Rocks on the AAU circuit and shooting 55.9 percent from 3-point range at the prestigious Nike Peach Jam. Gonzaga awarded him a scholarship. There was interest in other large schools.
He was a tireless worker. His mother and Jim’s wife, Julie, reminded him of so much work in high school, he would have to tell that it was enough on many occasions. Before school, Buddy worked with the team in Syracuse and spent the night shooting after high school games or practice.
As their stock began to rise, the entire Syracuse coaching staff walked into Jim’s office one day and said they wanted to give their son a scholarship, which Julie remembered as a “ground moment”. Jim did not want to push his son onto his staff.
A few days later, Julie tells Buddy that the school is going to give her a scholarship.
“He looked at me with big eyes, like, ‘Oh really?” “she remembers. “I knew what he was thinking.”
As a child, Buddy was a ballboy with his older brother Jimmy, who used to play for Cornell. He would literally cry for hours after the loss, Julie said. When his father arrives home, tears will rise again. He would not want to go to school the next day, fearing that someone would ask him how the team did the previous game.
“He’s been crying since Syracuse basketball when he was about 3 years old,” Julie said. “He is 21 years old and he had 19 years of that feeling and love and passion [for the program]”
Before deciding whether Buddy would attend Syracuse, Jim talked to several coaching friends, who had coached his sons. It is not necessary, but it is worth it, he said.
Jim said that when his son gets attention during the games, he has 90 percent as a coach and 10 percent as a father. He is trying to see how he can help his son like all other Syracuse players. But Jim, 76, does not dismiss the pride factor given Buddy’s performance, especially now that he has emerged.
“It’s fun to see him as a parent,” Jim said. “It is a great privilege to train your son, there is no question about it.”
Every year at Syracuse, Buddy has shown progress, from a 3-point specialist as a freshman reserve to junior as the team’s most important player. This year he is the Orange’s leading scorer in 17.3 points per game, one of its top playmakers and shooting career-bests from the field (42.5 percent) at the free-throw line (87.8) and long range (37.3).
He struggled early in the season, Syracuse went to an 18-day standstill and missed three matches with COVID-19. When he returned, he was hard on himself, taking ownership of the team’s struggles after the loss. After a bad game, Jim talks to him.
“Relax,” he told Buddy. “You’ve already defeated the expectations imposed on you. Just go out there and play.”
This was a great advantage of coaching his son. Jim knew when to be tough on Buddy and when to convince him. Like his first two seasons, Buddy improved at the close of March. He has been on his best end of the year, helping Syracuse win six of their final nine games in an NCAA tournament bid in a disappointing season. He scored in double digits in nine straight games, scoring 21 points or more than five times. His last game was his best, a career-high 31 points in a buzzer-beating loss to Virginia in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.
“Getting 31 points against Virginia is like getting 45 against most teams,” Jim joked. He said, ‘We had trouble scoring 31 as a team against them in three quarters. [of a game]”
After watching his father’s teams make distant March memories for years, he would have the chance to run his own NCAA tournament.
“It’s just so horrible and real because this kid was completely absorbed and consumed with Syracuse basketball,” Julie said. “It is breathtaking. I could just cry. “
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